There Was No Goodbye
by EdeaOfEternia
Summary: The world was saved, but something was missing when the Heroes Of Light woke once more. TRUE ENDING SPOILERS. RINDEA.


Edea's eyes were slow to open — but she knew exactly how a bed in the Caldisla inn felt against her back, and it sent her into a panic that propelled her straight up.

_No! Not another world reset! That can't be, the Sage said —!_

She looked around frantically. "Tiz? Agnes? Ringabel?!"

"Oh! You're awake!" Egil was standing in the doorway, eyes bright with excitement. 'Don't worry, they're just downstairs. TIZ! AGNES! She's awake!" He tottered back down to go and retrieve them.

"Oh thank the Crystals," Edea almost started crying upon seeing the little Eisenberg boy, despite how grating his voice could be. Instead she shook off the swell of emotion and swung her legs over the side of the bed, grinning when she heard the footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Edea!" To her surprise, Agnes embraced her upon sight. The Eternian laughed and hugged her back, pleased nonetheless. "I'm so glad you're all right. We were so worried when you didn't wake up the same time as we did."

"Sorry about that," Edea released her, grinning over at Tiz. "At least you two got to have some private time together, right?"

Tiz blushed and looked away, "Uh…Yeah."

Edea couldn't stop smiling. They had done it — they had saved countless worlds, defeated a god, defeated that no-good lying Airy — all four of them. Together.

And speaking of which…

"Where's Ringabel?" His stupid pompadour was nowhere in sight. "Don't tell me the first thing he did was run off to the bar to hit on girls again!"

The joyous mood in the room suddenly chilled, and Agnes and Tiz glanced at each other nervously in unison.

Tiz fumbled over his words, and then said, "Edea, he… Ringabel wasn't with us when we woke up."

Edea's heart dropped. "What? Why not? Then—Then we have to go find him, don't we? Where could he have—"

"We think that he was sent back to his original world," Agnes stated, as gently and yet as firmly as she could. This was no time to beat around the proverbial bush. "The first world…where he came from."

"What?" Edea dropped back to sit on the bed she had just clambered out of. "Wh…But the Sage said we could _choose_ where we wanted to—you don't think he would actually _want_to go back there, do you? Weren't all of us _dead_ back there?"

Tiz nodded somberly. "Yeah…"

Edea just sat there, staring at her knees. As the tears started to spill over, she choked out, "Th-Then why?"

Agnes tried to pipe up, "I-It might be because…there aren't supposed to be two of someone in a —"

"But Alternis is _dead!" _Edea snapped at her, although it was apparently she immediately regretted it. She put her face in her hands, "He fell off of Grandship the first time — i-into the ocean, in all that armor — he couldn't have surv-vived! R-Ringabel could've t-taken his p-place and—!"

"Edea—" Tiz tried to comfort her, but Agnes stopped him with a soft touch on his arm, shaking her head. He understood the gesture and nodded grimly. "We…We'll let you have some time alone. We'll be downstairs if you need us."

Edea continued to sob quietly in her hands, despite how a part of her wanted to ask them to stay, how a part of her wanted to insist that the _last_ thing she needed was "some time alone."

But they were already gone when she looked up.

With a shaky breath, Edea turned back to climb into the bed. She had no desire to do anything else for the rest of her life, as far as she was concerned. She just … couldn't understand _why._

It was as she was doing this that she felt something hard underneath her pillow, and lifted it to reveal… the journal.

A quick flips through the pages revealed that it was the World 1 journal—_Ringabel's_journal— but to her dismay, no secret message or sweet farewell was written inside. Nothing different. Just the book — _his_ book.

She curled her arms around it as tightly as she could anyway, her sobs wracking her small form. She remained like that for the rest of the day, and well into night.

/

_I was a fool to wait. I kept putting it off — that talk I wanted to have with you. The thoughts I wanted to share. My fears, my own nightmares — I thought we had more time. I thought all of us could talk when this was all over._

_But I was wrong._

_I think was upsets me the most is that you never said goodbye. Did you have any intention of coming back with us? Of being with us when it was all over?_

_I spoke with Tiz again, and finally got the full picture: The Edea you were in love with was never me. I just happened to be "close enough" to the one you lost. It explains so much, but that doesn't make the heartbreak go away._

_It turns out Alternis survived somehow, by the grace of the Crystals. I'm happy, and yet I still don't know how to feel about him…because he isn't _**_you._**_Maybe you thought that I was meant to be with the Alternis of this world. Maybe that's why you left. You didn't want to "take his place" from him._

_But that was a fool's thought, and shame on you if that was any part of your motivation. I care for Alternis, but it was you who traveled five worlds with me. It was you who I stayed up late with in the inn, it was you who insisted on taking me out on those silly dates, it was you who I came to love, despite how I hated your womanizing tendencies._

_It was you, Ringabel. And you left me without even saying goodbye. I don't know if that makes me hate you or love you more._

_Then again, Tiz wasn't much better._

_We found Tiz lying quietly, unmoving, by his brother's grave this afternoon._

_We have no idea how or why, but he was barely alive. Agnes was inconsolable, so I had to take care of the preparations myself. I'm trying to figure out what could have happened, but I have absolutely no idea._

_I could really use your help right about now._

Edea sighed and set down the pen. That was it. She had filled the last empty page in the Journal.

"Edea?" A familiar-yet-not voice came from the doorway, followed by a hesitant (and kind of pointless) knock.

"Yes, Alternis?" She didn't look up from her desk.

"We managed to get Victor's machine working," He stood awkwardly in the doorway. "They'll be placing Tiz in there as soon as possible, and hopefully that'll stabilize him…for now."

Finally, some good news. She smiled, although it was directed down towards the pages of the book. "That's wonderful news. I'll send word to Agnes. Thank you."

"You're welcome." He lingered for a few moments longer, as though he wanted to say something else…and then thought better of it, moving to go.

"…Alternis," She turned in her chair and called after him. "I'm glad you're all right."

"…Thank you, Edea." She could hear the smile in his voice, even when it was obscured by that helmet of his. Then he was gone.

Edea sighed heavily and looked down at the journal, shutting it and setting it aside on her desk.

Part of her wondered if they should have just stayed in the world where Til was alive, where Olivia had been spared, where Einheria and her sisters had not been driven to commit the crimes that they had…where they had saved everyone, for a change.

_But that wasn't where we belonged,_ she closed her eyes._I guess you knew that, Ringabel. Better than any of us._

Still…that didn't make it hurt any less.


End file.
